An Arizona law enforcement agency is backing away from a document it produced in the aftermath of Saturday's shootings in Tucson -- and which was leaked to Fox News -- that linked the man accused with carrying out the crimes to a white nationalist publication.

After Fox News began citing the document in its broadcasts, initially describing it as a memo from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the story was picked up by other media, which suggested that the federal government was looking at the role of the publication, American Renaissance, in motivating the shootings.

David Denlinger, commander of the Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center acknowledged that the document came from his agency, but contained errors and overstated the link between Jared Loughner, the 22-year-old charged with shooting Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and others outside a Tucson supermarket, and American Renaissance.

This story was the basis for an enormous amount of Web speculation on both sides, with some on the right insisting it proved that DHS was politicizing the tale in order to smear the right. The tale was picked up on by liberal blogs and even was followed by reputable news orgs.

Given the story's highly incendiary allegations, the super-heated political atmosphere, and the dubious sourcing -- Fox originally sourced this to a DHS memo, even though the FBI is leading the investigation -- it's really surprising people weren't a bit more cautious.

Let's get the story straight -
THE MEMO ITSELF SAYS THE INVESTIGATION IS BEING TAKEN OVER BY THE FBI

HERE IS A COPY OF THE MEMO:

MEMO:

"The investigation has been taken over by the FBI, and is being run through the Tucson Command Post.

Here's what can be confirmed at this time (1800 hrs)... * Gabrielle Giffords Is in ICU.* Federal judge John Roll is deceased.

He did rule on a 32 million dollar civil rights lawsuit in February, 2010. That ruling brought death threats to Roll and his family, and for a time he was given a protection detail.* 6 deaths attributed to the shooting. 19 total people hit by gunfire.* suspect’s mother works for the Pima County Board of Supervisors* the suspect has multiple arrests ... But no criminal record? Intervention by someone?*

no direct connection - but strong suspicion is being directed at AmRen / American Renaissance. Suspect is possibly linked to this group. (through videos posted on his myspace and YouTube account.).

The group’s ideology is anti government, anti immigration, anti ZOG (Zionist Occupational Government), anti Semitic. Gabrielle Gifford is the first Jewish female elected to such a high position in the US government. She was also opposite this group’s ideology when it came to immigration debate.*

DHS have a list of names and dates of birth of all victims.* the ACTIC is still playing a major role in the investigation... Computer forensics is cleaning up the surveillance videos, and images from around the scene, and involved in the investigation - working together, was MCSO, DPS, Phoenix PD, ICE, and of course the FBI. It did just come in from the command post, that the federal judge was Not originally scheduled to attend the meeting, according to wife. She stated that he received a phone call about an hour before and was invited to attend. Wrong place - wrong time. For the planning side, there are impromptu memorials popping up all over the state, but the largest one is downtown phoenix, at the capital."

"""Daily Kos wrote on Twitter: “Mission Accomplished, Sarah Palin.” (ignoring his own earlier 2008 bullseye on a picture of the pro-gun Giffords)"""

The passage about the bullseye has since been removed.

Ya know why?

Because THERE WAS NO BULLSEYE picture at all. That was a concoction of the Right Wing, who are now proliferating the lie throughout the internet in order to smear someone on the Left for having an opinion.

All of these Republicans are just lying sacks of snot. This time Brooks was caught and the fraudulent bit removed. Scum.

Looks like all those budget cuts the states are facing may have repercussions that have nothing to do with a balanced budget.

Sorry to be OT :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"WASHINGTON -- In the past year, Pima County, Ariz., where Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 19 others were shot Saturday, has seen more than 45 percent of its mental health services recipients forced off the public rolls, a service advocate told The Huffington Post.

The deep cuts in treatment were protested strongly at the time, with opponents warning that they would result in a spike in suicide attempts, public disturbances, hospitalizations and brushes with the police. But according to Clarke Romans, executive director for southern Arizona's branch of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the state government ignored requests for relief, citing the need to implement strict budget controls.

Now, in the wake of this weekend's horrific shootings, reports on the seemingly crazed mental state of the alleged shooter -- who was not, apparently, enrolled in any public treatment program -- is leading politicians, reporters and activists to take a fresh look at the funding of mental health care.

"So they have cut the budget on paper, in Phoenix, but they now expect the local community, like Tucson, to increase the police, the emergency room, the response to suicide attempts, incarcerations and hospital stays," he added, noting that these services are among the most expensive a local government can provide. "It's madness."

This is the modern news cycle. To the victor goes the spoils, and fact checking takes time. It's not only not surprising that they weren't more cautious, they will be no more cautious next time there's breaking news, of any kind.

Gabrielle Giffords and the perils of guns: How an armed hero nearly shot the wrong man.

"I had my hand on my gun. I had it in my jacket pocket here. And I came around the corner like this." Zamudio demonstrated how his shooting hand was wrapped around the weapon, poised to draw and fire. As he rounded the corner, he saw a man holding a gun. "And that's who I at first thought was the shooter," Zamudio recalled. "I told him to 'Drop it, drop it!' "

But the man with the gun wasn't the shooter. He had wrested the gun away from the shooter. "Had you shot that guy, it would have been a big, fat mess," the interviewer pointed out.

Zamudio agreed:

"""I was very lucky. Honestly, it was a matter of seconds. Two, maybe three seconds between when I came through the doorway and when I was laying on top of [the real shooter], holding him down. So, I mean, in that short amount of time I made a lot of really big decisions really fast. … I was really lucky."""

Ethan, I think it is inappropriate to discuss gun control after a deranged man bought a semi-automatic weapon and used a specialized clip to fire 31 shots, killing six and wounding 14, targeting a United States Congressperson, and killing a federal judge (under federal protection for unrelated threats), and a 9 year-old girl.

Why don't you just get a life, instead? Obsessing about people you will never meet on internet chat boards doesn't count.

"Of course it was debunked. The shooter was schooled at a neo-Weatherman indoctrination camp.

The gunman attended a network in which teachers are trained and provided resources by a Leftist group founded by Weatherman terrorist Bill Ayers and funded by President Obama."

ROFLOL. What a riot this Kaddafi is. Nthing to do all day but entertain us all with his wild and hilarious conspiracy theories. Meanwhile the pressure in this brain is building, eventually he will have to make that trip to a hardware store, wonder who he's targetting?

We can't talk about violent rhetoric because the shooter might not have listened to it.
We can't talk about high capacity magazines because the shooter could have easily reloaded.
We can't talk about semi auto weapons because the shooter could have flung a knife.
We can't talk about mentally ill people not getting guns, because maybe mentally ill people need to protect themselves.
We can't talk about mentally ill people getting medical care because healthcare is not a right.
We can talk about the saving grace of Jesus Christ instead.

"This story was the basis for an enormous amount of Web speculation on both sides, with some on the right insisting it proved that DHS was politicizing the tale in order to smear the right."

I know it is a very sad commentary on the state of our politics and the politicization of news organizations that I can say this, but I can't help suspecting the DHS thing was a deliberate forgery concocted purely so that the right could claim victim status.

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